Gavin_Collins

Gavin Collins

Gavin Collins

British Anglican bishop

For the baseball player, see Gavin Collins (baseball).

Gavin Andrew Collins (born 31 December 1966)[1] is a British Anglican bishop. He has been Bishop of Dorchester, an area bishop in the Diocese of Oxford, since 14 April 2021. From 2011 to 2021, he had been Archdeacon of The Meon in the Diocese of Portsmouth in Hampshire.

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Early life and education

Collins was born on 31 December 1966,[1] and grew up in Sussex, England.[2] He was educated at Sackville School, a comprehensive school in East Grinstead.[3] He read law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1989, automatically progressing to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in 1993.[2][4] While at Cambridge University, he served as prayer secretary of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union.[5]

Having attended the College of Law, Guildford, he qualified as a solicitor and worked in the City of London.[3][2] He left his legal career to train for ordination at Trinity College, Bristol, an evangelical Anglican theological college. He graduated with another BA in 1996 and a postgraduate Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1997.[1]

Ordained ministry

Collins was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1997 and as a priest in 1998.[4] He served his curacy at St Barnabas, Cambridge from 1997 to 2002.[1] From 2002 to 2011, Vicar of Christ Church, Chorleywood, a conservative evangelical church in the Diocese of St Albans.[4][6] He was additionally rural dean of Rickmansworth from 2006 to 2011.[3] In 2009, he became an honorary canon of St Albans Cathedral.[1] On 11 September 2011, Collins was collated as the second Archdeacon of The Meon at Portsmouth Cathedral.[7]

Collins has been a member of the General Synod of the Church of England since 2013.[3] He is one of the convenors of the Evangelical Forum, an open evangelical addition to the Synods' evangelical groupings.[2][8] He contributed a chapter to Journeys in Grace and Truth: Revisiting Scripture and Sexuality, a book of essays from Anglican evangelicals who hold a positive view of same-sex relationships.[5][9]

Episcopal ministry

Collins's appointment as the next Bishop of Dorchester, the area bishop for the whole county of Oxfordshire outside the cathedral city itself, was announced in November 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, his consecration as a bishop was postponed from 28 January, and instead he was licensed as episcopal vicar for the area ad interim; a role more common in the Roman Catholic Church and almost unique in the Church of England.[10] His consecration was planned for 12 April, but because of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh that weekend, the service was held privately at Lambeth Palace on 14 April 2021[11] with a limited congregation under COVID restrictions, and it was not live-streamed. He was consecrated a bishop by Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, in a service which began at 9:45am.[12]

Views

In November 2022, Collins endorsed Steven Croft's call that clergy in the Church of England should be free to bless or marry same-sex partners and to enter into a same-sex marriage themselves;[13][14] this is in contrast to the Church's current official position.[15]

In November 2023, he was one of 44 Church of England bishops who signed an open letter supporting the use of the Prayers of Love and Faith (i.e. blessings for same-sex couples) and called for "Guidance being issued without delay that includes the removal of all restrictions on clergy entering same-sex civil marriages, and on bishops ordaining and licensing such clergy".[16]

Family

He is married to Christina and they have three children. He has a twin brother who is an Elder in the Baptist Church and a sister who is a Methodist Lay preacher.

Selected works

  • Gavin Collins (2016). "7. A Credible Witness". In Ozanne, Jayne (ed.). Journeys in grace and truth: revisiting scripture and sexuality. London: Ekklesia. ISBN 978-0993294242.

Styles

References

  1. [1]
    "Collins, Ven. Gavin Andrew, (born 31 Dec. 1966), Archdeacon of The Meon, since 2011". Who's Who 2021. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2011. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U254723. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  2. [2]
    "Gavin Collins named Bishop of Dorchester". Diocese of Oxford. 24 November 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  3. [3]
    "The Ven Gavin Andrew COLLINS". The Church of England Year Book. Church House Publishing. 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  4. [4]
    "Gavin Andrew Collins". Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  5. [5]
    "Authors". Journeys in Grace and Truth. 14 June 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  6. [6]
    "A Church Near You". Achurchnearyou.com. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  7. [7]
    "Portsmouth Cathedral – September 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2011.
  8. [8]
    Rouch, Abigail Frymann (14 November 2020). "Anglicans restart their most challenging conversation". The Times. Retrieved 21 December 2020. Ms Groarke resigned from the Evangelical Group of the General Synod last year after it required its members to accept the traditional view of marriage in its basis of faith, and she has co-founded the more doctrinally open Evangelical Forum.
  9. [9]
    "Home Page". Journeys in Grace and Truth. Retrieved 23 December 2020. Is it possible to hold a positive view of same-sex relationships while being a biblically rooted evangelical? These twelve senior Anglican Evangelicals believe so.
  10. [10]
    "Bishop of Dorchester update". Diocese of Oxford. 22 January 2021.
  11. [11]
    "Consecration service for Bishop of Dorchester". Diocese of Oxford. 13 April 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  12. [12]
    "The Consecration of The Venerable Gavin Andrew Collins to be Bishop of Dorchester" (PDF). Oxford.anglican.org. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  13. [13]
    Burgess, Kaya (3 November 2022). "Bishop becomes most senior Church figure to back same-sex marriage". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  14. [14]
    Collins, Gavin [@GavinACollins] (4 November 2022). "Very proud to serve under @Steven_Croft and to endorse his contemplative, compassionate and courageous call for the Church of England to support same-sex marriage" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 November 2022 – via Twitter.
  15. [15]
    "Clergy should have the freedom to bless and marry same-sex couples, says +Oxford". Diocese of Oxford. 3 November 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  16. [16]
    Martin, Francis (1 November 2023). "Don't delay guidance allowing priests to be in same-sex marriages, say 44 bishops". Church Times. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
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